Note 1481 — Chapter X
Reading edition
Debates, 21st Cong. 1st Sess. 74.
This was the Constitutional theory of the Nationalists. As a matter of fact, it was not, perhaps, strictly true. There can be little doubt that a majority of the people did not favor the Constitution when adopted by the Convention and ratified by the States. Had manhood suffrage existed at that time, and had the Constitution been submitted directly to the people, it is highly probable that it would have been rejected. (See vol. i, chaps, ix-xii, of this work.)